The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-05-19

Another test by which you can find
whether your secret society is right or
wrong is the effect it has on your secular
occupation. can understand how
through such an institution man can
reach commercial success. know some
men have formed their best business re-
latiOns through such q channel. II the
secret society has advantaged you in an
honorable calling it is a good one But
has your credit faileda Are bargain
makers more anxious how they trust you
with bale of goods? Have the men
whose names were down in the CONNER
cial agency A before they entered the
society been going down since in CONNER
cial standinga Then look out.
1t appears that in Soiomon's time, as in
all subsequent periods Of the world, there
were people too much disposed to tell all
they knew. 1t was blab, blab, blab; ply
sicians revealing the case of their
patients, lawyers exposing the private af.
fairs OF their clients, neighbors advertis-
ing the faults of the next-door resident,
pretending friends betraying condolences
One-half of the trouble of every COM
munity comes from the fact that so many
people have not capacity to keep their
mouths shut. When / hear something
disparaging of you my first duty is not to
tell you. Bat if / tell you what somebody
has said against you, and then go out and
tell everybody else what told you, and
they go out and tell others what / told
them that tod you, and we all go out,
some to hunt up the originator of the
story and others to hunt it down, we shall
get the whole community talking about
what you did do and what you did not do,
and there will be as many scalps taken as
though band of Modocs had swept upon
a helpless village.
We have two ears but only one tongue,
a physiological suggestion that we ought
to hear great deal more than we tell
Let US join conspiracy that we will tell
each other all the good and nothing of the
i'll, and then there will not be such awful
need of sermons on Solomon's words:
Discover not a secret to another.
Solomon had large domestic circle. In
his earlier days he had very confused no.
tions about monogamy and polygamy, and
his multitudinous associates in the matri-
monial state kept him too well inform ed
as to what was going on in Jerusalem.
They gathered up all the privacies of the
city and poured them into his ear. and his
family became sorosls, or female debat-
ing society of seven hund red, discussing
dayaft er day all the difficulties between
husbands and wives, between employers
and employees, fbetween rulers and SUBJ
iects, until Solomon, in my text, deplores
volubility about affairs that do not belong
to us and extols the virtue of secretive-
ness.
By the power of a secret divulged, fam
lilies, churches, neighborhoods, nations fly
apart By the power of secret kept,
great charities, socialities, reformatory
movements and Christian enterprises may
be advanced. Men are gregarious-cattle
in herds fish IN schools, birds in f1ocks,
men in social circles. You may, by the
discharge of gun, scatter flock of
quails, or by the plunge of the anchor
send apart the denizens of thu sea, but
they will gather themselves together
again. If you, by some new power, could
break the associations in which men now
stand, they would again adhere. g cd
meant it so. He has gathered all the
flowers and shrubs into associations. You
may plant one forget-me-not or hearts
ease alone, away of upon the hillside, but
it will soon hunt up some other forget
me-not and heart's-case. Plants love
company. You will find them talking to
each other In the dew. A galaxy of stars
is only mutual life insurance company.
You sometimes see man with no out
branchings of sympathy. His nature is
cold and hard like a ships mast ice
glazed, which the most agile sailor could
never climb. Others have thousand
roots and Thousand branches. Innum.
cradle tendrils climb their hearts, and
blossom all the way up, and the fowls Of
Heaven sing in the branches. In conse-
quence of this tendency, we find men
coming together in tribes, in commune
ties, in churches, in societies. Some
gather together to cultivate the arts,
some to plan for the welfare of the State,
some to discuss religious themes, some to
kindle their mirth, some to advance their
crafts. So every active community i:
divided into associations Of artists, oil
merchants, of bookbinders, of carpenters,
of masons, Of plasterers, OF shipwrights,
OF plumbers. Do you cry out against It'll
| Then you cry out against tendency
divinely implanted. Your TRADES would
accomplish no more than if you should
preach to busy ant hill or beehive a
long sermon against secret societies.
Here we find the oft-discussed question
| whether associations that do their worl
with closed doors, and admit their mem
| bers by passwords, and greet each othe,
| with secret grip, are right or wrong.
| answer that it depends entirely on the ma
| ture of the object for which they meet. Il
| it to pass the hours in revelry, wassail
blasphemy and obscene talk, or to plo
trouble to the State, or to debauch the in
nocent, then say, with an emphasis tina
no man can mistake, mol But Is the objec
the defense of the rights of any clas
against oppression, the Improvement o
the mind, the enlargement of the heart
the advancement of art, the defense of tn
Government, the extirpation of crime, O
the kindling of pure hearted sociality
then I say, with just as much emphasis
yes!
There is no need that we who plan fo
the conquest of right over wrong SHOULD
publish to all the world our intentions
The General of an army never sends t,
the opposing troops information Q
the coming attack. Shall we VIII
have enlisted in the cause of Got
and humanity expose our plans to tn
enemy? mol we will in secret plot tn,
ruin of all the enterprises of Satan and hi
cohorts. When they expect US by day w,
win fall upon them by night While they
are strengthening their left wing we will
double up their right By plan of BATH
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